Hamas accuses Netanyahu of 'personally hindering' Gaza ceasefire talks, UN warns of 'full-blown famine'

Talks to strike a Gaza truce were expected to resume Sunday after Hamas said it could not accept a deal that failed to end the attacks on the Palestinian territory and accused Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu of "personally hindering" an agreement.

Negotiators seeking to halt the devastating seven-month war have proposed a 40-day pause in the fighting and an exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners, according to details released by the UK.

Qatari, Egyptian and U.S. mediators met a Hamas delegation in Cairo on Saturday as bombs continued to fall on Gaza and a senior Hamas source close to the negotiations said there would be "a new round" of talks on Sunday.

A senior Hamas official stated late Saturday that the group would "not agree under any circumstances" to a truce that did not explicitly include a complete end to the war, including Israel's withdrawal from Gaza.

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The official, who asked not to be named, hit out at Israel's push to secure a hostage-release deal "without linking it to ending the aggression on Gaza." He accused Netanyahu of "personally hindering" efforts to reach a truce due to "personal interests."

Hamas has also said it wants guarantees from the U.S. that Israel will not launch a ground invasion in southern Rafah, despite officials in Israel – which hasn't yet sent a delegation to Cairo – say the attack will take place even if a ceasefire deal is reached.

A top Israeli official said earlier that Hamas was "thwarting the possibility of reaching an agreement" by refusing to give up its demand for an end to the war. Israel has not agreed to any guarantees that the war will end, said one official in Jerusalem.

Despite months of shuttle diplomacy, mediators have failed to broker a new truce like the week-long ceasefire that saw 105 hostages released last November in exchange for Palestinians held by Israel.

Previous negotiations stalled in part due to Hamas' calls for a lasting ceasefire and Netanyahu's repeated vows to crush the group's remaining fighters in the southern city of Rafah, which is flooded with displaced civilians.

Israel has yet to send a delegation to Cairo. The Israeli official said it would do so only if there was "positive movement" on the proposed framework.

'Full-blown famine'

Since the October 7 attacks on Israel that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 34,650 people in Gaza, mostly women and children. Many more bodies are thought to be trapped under rubble. 

Meanwhile, the United Nations has warned of a "full-blown famine" in northern Gaza. "There is famine, full-blown famine in the north and it's moving its way south," Cindy McCain, executive director of the World Food Programme, said in an interview excerpt published Friday.

The United Nations says more than 70 percent of Gaza's residential buildings have been completely or partly destroyed, and rebuilding will require an effort unseen since the aftermath of World War II.

U.S. President Joe Biden has come under mounting domestic pressure to leverage more concessions from Netanyahu's government over its conduct of the war.

A letter signed by 88 members of Congress from Biden's Democratic Party expressed serious concern over Israel's "deliberate withholding" of aid for Palestinian civilians and urged Biden to consider halting arms sales unless Israel's conduct changes.

Israel has allowed a slight uptick in aid deliveries into Gaza in recent days but UN agencies say that has not averted the advancing famine.

Rafah 'bloodbath'

The prospect of an assault on Rafah has sparked deepening international concern. A senior Hamas official on Saturday said Israel would bear "full responsibility for insisting on entering Rafah instead of ceasing the aggression."

The WHO says 1.2 million people, half of the Gaza Strip's population, are sheltering in Rafah.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Friday warned that "a full-scale military operation in Rafah... could lead to a bloodbath."

The war on Gaza has been accompanied by increased Israeli violence in the occupied West Bank, where Israel said on Saturday its troops killed five Palestinians "terrorists" during a 12-hour siege near Tulkarm.

Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, reported the death of three fighters, including its Tulkarm chief Alaa Adib. Israeli troops and settlers have killed nearly 500 Palestinians in the territory since October 7, the vast majority of them civilians.

Student protests against the war have erupted in Europe and North America, with demonstrators gathering on at least 40 U.S. university campuses since mid-April. 

In recent days, police have forcibly dismantled several student sit-ins, including one at New York University at the request of its administrators. At the University of California, Los Angeles, hundreds of police emptied a camp, tearing down barriers and detaining more than 200 protesters.

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